Bonding wires having a circular cross section or bonding wires in the form of ribbons are used for producing bonds. Bonding wires are lead wires for microelectronic components such as integrated circuits or LEDs. Particularly in microelectronic assembly and interconnection technology, the bonding wire is usually made of gold or a gold alloy. However, bonding wires made of aluminum having some small silicon content are also used. Bonding wires having a circular cross section are used especially for transmitting low current intensities. For example, in the case of a chip, the bonding wires connect the pins visible from the outside to the pads located in the interior of the chip. The diameters of such bonding wires having a circular cross section are mostly in the range between 25 and 50 μm. In power electronics, for the most part nearly pure aluminum bonding wires are used. Ribbon bonding wires are especially suitable for transmitting high current intensities. However, bonding wires having a circular cross section are also used in this area, the diameter of the bonding wires for this application area being roughly between 125 and 500 μm, depending on the current load to be transmitted.
In order to be able to transmit high current loads, it is known to position a plurality of bonding wires side by side. Such a setup is described, for example, in German Patent Application No. DE 199 10 418. In that case, each bonding wire is welded to the two contact surfaces to be connected. To that end, large contact surfaces are needed for accommodating the bonding wires. However, the space for accommodating a plurality of side-by-side bonding wires is not available in the case of many applications.